


Food For Thought

by Luki



Category: Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-31 23:27:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/349500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luki/pseuds/Luki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The key may have made Sari more powerful, but being technorganic also comes with a heavy price tag.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Food For Thought

**Author's Note:**

> A little one shot based on the sorta-spoiler picture that appeared on Derrick Wyatt’s blog in January, and a theory that was mentioned on the Moonbase 2 Podcast about Sari – where they theorised that Sari might need to eat energon now that she’s a little more cybertronian than she used to be.

It all started two days after Ratchet had released Sari back into her father’s care. Ratchet had been wary about letting her go, insisting that she need more supervision to find out just what her ill-timed ‘upgrade’ had done. But at the same time, the bond between father and daughter had been strained enough – they weren’t going to stand in the way of the two any more than had already been done.  
So after giving the two a few days alone, Bumblebee and Bulkhead had gone to meet her outside of Sumdac Tower, only to find her slouched on the steps, looking frightfully pale. Both quickly transformed and gave her worried glances.  
“Man Sari” Bumblebee started. “You don’t look too good.”  
“Do you…want us to call Ratchet?” Bulkhead asked.  
Sari groaned and shook her head. “No…I think its just...food poisoning. Dad took me to Burger Bot this afternoon but it didn’t taste right. I threw most of it up.”  
The two bots winced. When the young not-human had been staying with them, a few too many rounds at Burger Bot had resulted in the same symptoms. It had been a more detailed look at organic virus programming than they’d particularly wanted.  
“You know, maybe you should stay in bed today” Bulkhead urged. “Just in case. You might feel better.”  
Sari groaned, but didn’t argue.  
“Yeah…I’ll see you tomorrow.”

\---

The next day, Sari had strode into the base looking better than the last time Bumblebee had seen her. But there was a definite lethargic ness to her movements.  
She slumped onto the couch, not even bothering with one of the pillows she usually had around, and rested her head on her arms.  
“Can we just stay here today? I have no energy.”  
Bumblebee frowned. “Still sick?”  
Sari shook her head. “No, but I missed breakfast just to make sure. I’m just tired.”  
There was a crackle of electricity, and she felt something land on her shoulder. Sitting up, she grabbed the candy bar and looked over at the minibot, whose stinger was sliding back into place, while one of the vending machines was smoking slightly.  
“I know Prowl and Ratchet mostly took care of your eating schedule, but I’m pretty sure the big rule was not to skip meals.”  
Sari grinned. “And I thought candy bars weren’t meals?”  
Bumblebee shrugged. “I wont tell if you wont.”  
He sat down on the opposite side of the couch, while Sari unwrapped the bar.  
“Where’s Bulkhead?”  
“Trying to glue back together whatever was left of the Space Bridge. So far it’s not going well.”  
Sari bit into the bar, chewing while she spoke.  
“Aren’t you supposed to be helping him?”  
“They kicked me out.”  
He rolled his optics and stood up, waving his arms about theatrically.  
“One little transwarp tour of the galaxy and suddenly I’m a walking disaster waiting to happen. You’d think they’d cut me some slack.”  
He’d expected a laugh, so the strangled choke put his sensors on alert. He turned around.  
“Sari?”  
Her eyes were wide, with one hand over her throat. Another strangling sound escaped her mouth, and she dropped into a ball, head over the edge of her seat. Seconds later, the candy bar she had just swallowed was churned back up.  
“Sari!”  
The cyber-human couldn’t speak, her stomach still churning and trying to throw up food that was no longer there. Bile tainted her tongue, and she barely acknowledged Bumblebee gingerly picking her up and running for the medbay, yelling for Ratchet. By the time they reached the doors, she’d blacked out.

\---

“You might as well open your eyes. I know you’re up.”  
Sari cracked a smile before complying. “This is becoming a habit.”  
Ratchet sighed. “Unfortunately.”  
On the opposite side of the table, Bumblebee was watching over her, staring in obvious relief as she sat up.  
“Don’t move to much,” he warned. “How do you feel?”  
The girl sighed. Her throat hurt, her stomach was still on the fast cycle, and she was getting a headache. But these were all minor inconveniences compared to the big fish.  
”…Tired. Really, really tired.”  
Ratchet sighed. “I was afraid of that. When was the last time you ate kid?”  
He noticed the raised eyebrows and cut her off before she could whip up the sarcastic reply. “That you actually managed to **keep** down.”  
Sari’s mouth closed, and much to both bots worry, actually had to think about it.  
“I’m…not sure. Maybe the day I…”  
“The day you upgraded yourself” Ratchet finished. “And unfortunately, that’s what’s caused the problem.”  
Bumblebee frowned. “The upgrade? How could that be causing this?”  
It appears that your upgrade did more than just speed up the organic aging process,” Ratchet explained. “Your circuits have taken over more components, probably to help increase your functions. But since cybertronians can’t eat organic matter, they’re refusing to acknowledge food as a source of fuel anymore.”  
“So…I have to what?” Sari asked. “Start drinking oil?”  
Both didn’t miss the shudder that passed through her frame. It clearly wasn’t a pleasant notion for her.  
But Ratchet shook his head. “I wouldn’t recommend it. You’re still organic enough for it to cause serious problems.”  
“So…what should she refuel on?” Bumblebee asked.  
Ratchet opened his mouth…and then closed it.  
”Uhh…can I get back to you on that?”

\---

That afternoon, the Autobots met in Ratchets medbay. Sari, on Ratchet’s orders, had been sent home to sleep, the theory being the more recharge she had, the less energy she would use, and the longer they’d have to come up with a solution.  
And it appeared they’d need all the time they could get, for none of the Autobots appeared to have any ideas for a solution.  
“I must admit, this didn’t occur to me” Optimus sighed. “Her tanks aren’t accepting anything.”  
“The fact that its still more of a stomach than a tank is the problem” Ratchet explained. “Won’t take oil, but can’t accept food.”  
Prowl shook his head. “You would think that the Allspark would have designed an upgrade to be a little more…compatible.”  
“How long does she have?” Bulkhead asked. “I mean, if she can’t refuel…”  
Ratchet shrugged. “Hard to say. If she keeps her activities to a minimum and sleeps as much as she can, she could keep on going for months. The cybertronian circuitry can take it, its all a case of whether or not her organic half can keep that pace.”  
“There must be something!” Bulkhead snapped, and then winced.  
“Sorry.”  
“Don’t worry about it Bulkhead” Optimus replied. “We’re all worried. But we need to put our heads together and come up with a solution.”  
“We could experiment” Prowl offered. “See what causes the worst effects. It could be that there is organic food she wont reject.”  
Ratchet shook his head. “No go. She gets worse with every purge. I wont risk it.”  
“So how else do we go about finding out what a technorganic eats?” Bumblebee argued. “Its not like there’s any others out there that’ll let us borrow their shopping lists!”  
Ratchet glared at him, but any reply was forgotten when Optimus stilled, and uttered a name.  
“Black Arachnia.”  
The revelation hit them like Megatron's fusion cannon.  
“Yes” Prowl started. “She’s part organic, she would have the same problem.”  
“And she’s been around for more stellar cycles than I have” Bumblebee finished. “So she’s gotta be eating something.”  
A rather sneaky smile was on Primes face. “Energon. It has to be.”  
Ratchet frowned. “What makes you so sure?”  
“On the planet…where Elita-1 was…lost, there was a horde of energon cubes, and they were being guarded by the spiders that inhabited it. They were the only creatures we saw, and their eggs had taken on the hue of the energon. I’m willing to be they were ingesting it.”  
“Well if they could handle it…” Bulkhead replied.  
“Add that to the fact that Black Arachnia had to be refuelling with something on that planet, it’s the only solution” Optimus finished. “Energon, that’s the answer.”  
“Maybe so” Prowl said, “but its not as if we have access to an energon farm here.”  
“No need” Bulkhead replied. “The farms are only needed for mass quantities. If we only need to make enough for Sari, we can probably refine enough from stuff on earth.”  
Bumblebee gaped. “Seriously?”  
“Hey, we’re drinking the oil here right? There’s got to be something in it.”  
Ratchet and Bumblebee glanced at each other, and as one, grabbed an arm of the green truck and pulled him into the corner.  
“You know, the space bridge can wait.”  
”Damn right. Now, how do we go about making a refiner?”

\---

Another two days later, and Bumblebee brought Sari and her father back to the base. Professor Sumdac had clearly realised something was very wrong, and wasn’t letting his daughter out of his sight until the problem was gone.  
Prowl greeted them outside the base, walking with them to the medbay. Sari had insisted on walking, though her eyes kept drooping.  
“How are you feeling Sari?”  
“Bad…” she whispered. “I’m really hungry.”  
“She keeps raiding the fridge,” Professor Sumdac explained. “Her body is telling her to eat but won’t let her keep it down.”  
There was a helplessness in his voice from the situation – once he could have locked Sari in her room to save her from herself. Now that his daughter easily matched, if not surpassed him in height, and had 24 hour access to weapons, keeping her contained if she wanted something was no easy feat.  
Prowl and Bumblebee just prayed that it wouldn’t have to come to that.  
“Well, if all goes to plan, Ratchet might have the answer to your problems” Bumblebee explained, and pulled up the steel door.  
“We’re here docbot!”  
Optimus and Bulkhead head smiles while the medic through the yellow bot a withering look. “Don’t call me that.”  
He walked over, a small tray in one hand, and placed it down on a human sized table. Both Sumdacs stared at the contents in some confusion.  
“Popsicles?” Sumdac asked.  
“Glowing popsicles” Sari corrected.  
There were three of them, being held up in small containers, and certainly had the shape and form of the cheap ice cream lollies Sari ate in the summer, sticks and all. But she was fairly certain she’d never seen one in such a shade of pink before. Or one that glowed for that matter.  
With some trepidation, she picked one up. “What is it? Radioactive or something?”  
“Or something” Ratchet replied. “What you’re holding is pure energon, refined and then processed into a solid mass. Normally it’s a liquid, but it’ll be easily and more familiar for you like this.”  
“Try em!” Bumblebee piped up. “They’ve all got different flavours too! We tried adding a little human flavourings to make them more familiar.”  
Bulkhead pointed at each of them. “The one on the left is original, the one in the middle is chocolate, and the one in your hand is lemon.”  
“I wanted to make a cheeseburger one, but someone” Bumblebee threw a glare at Ratchet. “Said that was too complicated for a first batch.”  
Sari grinned, and put down the lemon one to pick up the original. Everyone in the room tensed as she gingerly gave it a lick, and after realising it wasn’t ice cold, took a bite. She savoured it for a moment, and then swallowed.  
30 seconds later, Bumblebee’s patience snapped.  
“Well?”  
The girl turned and smiled. “Needs salt.”  
Everyone relaxed, and Ratchet walked closer. “No problems?”  
Sari shook her head, and took another bite before answering. “If there was I would have thrown up by now. But I definitely feel better.”  
And she did. How only two bites could do it she had no idea, but her stomach was quieting, and there was a definite rush of energy running through her limbs again.  
Ratchet smiled. “Good. I want you to finish those three if you can. We’ll make sure to keep a steady supply here at the base for you. We’ll send the next batch over to Sumdac Tower with you though, just in case.”  
Professor Sumdac was shaking in relief. “Thank you.”  
Sari nodded. “Yeah. Thanks guys. These are really good. Just one thing.”  
She picked up the lemon one and grinned.  
“Think you can make them in grape?”


End file.
